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Fighter 4/ wizard 6/ pale master 30
This player character build (fighter 4/ wizard 6/ pale master 30, originally the Undead Lord by Christopher "cdaulepp" Aulepp) wears full plate and a tower shield, wields a scimitar, and casts automatically stilled spells. It features devastating criticals in a weapon with a large threat range, but its low attack bonus may mean this is better viewed as a defensive build, with its immunity to critical hits and a high armor class. Weapon combat is augmented by epic spellcasting, although the caster level is fairly low for non-epic spells. Still, combining immunity to critical hits with the damage reduction of epic warding makes it difficult for opponents to injure the Undead Lord with their weapons. Mindless zombies are scary. Brilliant wizards are scary. Heavily armoured warriors are scary. Combine all three together? That's the making of nightmares. The Undead Lord is a nightmare personified. Basics Race: human Abilities: (final scores in parentheses) * Strength: 18 (26) * Dexterity: 8 * Constitution: 12 * Wisdom: 8 * Intelligence: 16 (20) * Charisma: 8 Alignment: lawful neutral (any non-good) Hit points: 249-362 (average 305.5) Saving throws: * Fortitude: 24 * Reflex: 15 * Will: 22 Vs. spells: +9 Level progression Classes by character level * 1: fighter * 2–4: wizard * 5–14: pale master * 15–16: fighter * 17–19: wizard * 20: fighter * 21–40: pale master Ability increases * 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24: strength * 28, 32, 36: intelligence * 40: strength General feats by character level * 1: power attack * 1: cleave * 3: extend spell * 6: spell penetration * 9: great cleave * 12: greater spell penetration * 15: still spell * 18: toughness * 21: overwhelming critical (scimitar) * 24: great strength I * 27: devastating critical (scimitar) * 30: great intelligence I * 33: automatic still spell I * 36: epic weapon focus (scimitar) * 39: armor skin Fighter bonus feats by character level (fighter level in parentheses) * 1 (1): weapon focus (scimitar) * 15 (2): improved critical (scimitar) * 20 (4): weapon specialization (scimitar) Wizard bonus feats by character level (wizard level in parentheses) * 18 (5): empower spell Pale master epic bonus feats by character level (pale master level in parentheses) * 23 (13): epic spell penetration * 26 (16): epic spell: epic mage armor * 29 (19): epic spell: greater ruin * 32 (22): epic spell: epic warding * 35 (25): automatic still spell II * 38 (28): automatic still spell III Skills This build receives 273 skill points over its 40 levels. The skills most important for this build are the following. Ranks are listed first, with the score modified by the relevant ability and the armor check penalty in parentheses. When the armor check penalty applies, two modified scores are presented: one accounting for just the armor and one for armor and shield. * concentration 43 (44) * discipline 23 (31) class skill for only fighter * listen 30 (29) class skill for only pale master * lore 20 (25) * move silently 30 (21 or 11) class skill for only pale master * spellcraft 43 (48) class skill for only wizard and pale master * spot 21 (20) cross-class skill * tumble 20 (11 or 1) cross-class skill This leaves 2 unused skill points. Stats Attack bonus In the absence of magical enhancements, whether from items or spells, this character's attack bonus (AB) when wielding a mundane scimitar is composed of the following elements at level 40. * 22: base attack bonus * +8: strength modifier * +3: feats (weapon focus) 33 AB for attacks per round of +33/+28/+23 If the character is permitted a scimitar with a +5 enhancement bonus and gear that provides a +12 bonus to strength (increasing the strength modifier by 6), the attacks per round become +44/+39/+34. If the character is additionally permitted to reach the +20 attack bonus cap and acquires haste, the attacks per round become +59/+54/+49/+59. Armor class In the absence of magical enhancements, whether from items or spells, this character's armor class (AC) when wearing (mundane) full plate and a tower shield is composed of the following elements at level 40. * 10: base AC * +8 full plate base AC * +3 tower shield base AC * −1: dexterity bonus * +16: pale master bonus * +2: armor skin * +4: tumble 42 AC If the character is permitted items with a +5 bonus in each of the five categories (armor, deflection, dodge, natural, and shield) as well as a +4 bonus to dexterity, the AC total becomes 69. If the character is instead permitted a +20 bonus in each category (and the +4 bonus to dexterity), the AC total becomes 144. Notes * This Undead Lord should focus on items that increase intelligence for extra spell slots and strength for extra attack bonus and damage. * Summoned creatures can be used to good effect. Various undead summons are available through pale master levels, culminating in the lesser demilich. Additional summons can be obtained through wizard spells, and a panther familiar can provide distracting sneak attacks. * When this build makes an attack with a keen scimitar, a (devastating) critical hit is threatened 45% of the time (on a 12-20), if the attack hits. * The choice of spells can improve the effectiveness of this build. True strike can help make up for the low attack bonus, while damage shields (Mestil's acid sheath, elemental shield, and death armor) can inflict damage without the need for this character to land a blow. Offensive spells should focus on those that have no save (due to the low spellcasting ability modifier), and should not rely on those that can be blocked by spell resistance (due to the low caster level, even though this is ameliorated somewhat by epic spell penetration). The following spells were suggested for the original Undead Lord build. *:Level 9 - Mordenkainen's disjunction, power word kill *:Level 8 - mind blank, greater sanctuary *:Level 7 - shadow shield, Bigby's grasping hand, power word stun, spell mantle *:Level 6 - Bigby's forceful hand, true seeing, Isaac's greater missile storm *:Level 5 - Bigby's interposing hand, energy buffer *:Level 4 - improved invisibility, Isaac's lesser missile storm *:Level 3 - keen edge, greater magic weapon, haste *:Level 2 - flame weapon *:Level 1 - true strike External links * Original build archived from the NWN build vault Fighter 04/ wizard 06/ pale master 30